Lionel Messi poses with goat in Paper magazine’s G.O.A.T edition

In a lengthy interview cover with the US Paper Magazine Lionel Messi showed his love for the animals. He poses with the goats for their cover photographs as they named their title Lionel Messi is the G.O.A.T.

It’s very unorthodox method to call the world’s best player in history a goat and ask him to pose with the goat, but they were adding humour to it. They gave ‘greatest of all time’ an acronym – G.O.A.T.

Well, Pele’s era very few living on the planet will still doubt it, who watch Maradona in 1986 World Cup will clearly deny it, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s loyal will envy it, but the truth is Messi has been widely considered as the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T).

It’s only his own humble nature, which keeps him grounded. Unlike CR7 (Cristiano Ronaldo), he never said he’s world’s best.

La Pulga told Paper Magazine, “On the field, we are all the same when the game begins. I don’t consider myself the best. I think I’m just another player.

He adds, “I take each day as a challenge and I always try to outdo myself. I have always been like this.”

It’s always welcomed to hear something like that from a player who has achieved everything in his life. Messi has 32 titles to his name for FC Barcelona including 9 La Liga titles, 4 UEFA Champions League title, 6 Copa del Rey, 7 Supercopa de Espana, 3 UEFA Super Cup, and 3 FIFA Club World Cup.

It’s not only about collective titles; individual awards haven’t been shied away from him as well. He is five times Ballon d’Or winner and five European Golden Shoe winner.

It’s just a trailer for the G.O.A.T (Greatest of all Time). I’m not going to be Messi’s Wikipedia here, La Pulga has many other awards to his name. The 30-year-old player is all a Guinness world record holder for his 50 goals scored in his 2011/12 La Liga’s campaign. He is also the record holder of the highest goal scorer in a calendar year with 91 goals breaking Germany’s Gerd Muller’s long-standing 86 goal record in 2012.

His legacy has only been questioned when he wears Argentine colour. As a young kid, Messi achieved everything for La Albiceleste winning U-20 FIFA World Cup and winning the gold medal at Beijing Olympic, but he still waits for his international success at senior level.

Messi helped Argentina reach three finals on consecutive occasion, but luck wasn’t there to help him lift the trophy. Argentina lose FIFA 2014 World Cup final to Germany, Copa America 2015 and 2016 to Chile on successive occasion.

You can feel Messi’s disappointment after losing Copa America 2016 final. He took a temporary retirement from international football in the heat of the moment. Winning a World Cup is an obsession for him. it’s simply that one trophy which can give him parallel respect to Pele and Maradona.

Both of those great stars were not great because they played better club football, they are remembered for their heroics at international level. Messi simply has given everything but still, World Cup dream haunts him.

Argentine no.10 adds, “Over the years, I have also realized that it is not good to let your dreams become an obsession. It increases the pressure and reduces the possibility of reaching them.”

Messi is not considering Argentina as one of the favourites but he’s not ready to give up yet. He adds, “It will be important to prepare well because in the qualifiers we were fighting up to the end and we didn’t have time to prepare ourselves. We still have to make ourselves stronger as a team to be in the running to win and be at the same level as other teams like France, Germany, Brazil or Spain. But we have a good group of players and the Argentine team is always going to be a candidate to win, it doesn’t matter how we get there. We always aim to win and we’ll try to go slowly but strongly to advance in the competition.

La Pulga is only one moment away from realizing his G.O.A.T moment and it’s lifting the World Cup. Russia 2018 may be his best chance. He’s still at his peak and at thirty it’s the right time to mix your experience and skill in football.